The Light Seeker Report
by IAMJerry262
Summary: A report on the activities of Project Light Seeker, as filed by the Order of Mata Nui.  A companion novella to my on-going series "Fire vs Ice." WARNING: Contains spoilers to the "Fire vs Ice" series. Please R&R and enjoy!


Disclaimer: Aside from the term "Project Light Seeker," I own nothing of this stories contents. All respective names, places and other things mentioned in this story are the property of LEGO. Please read, review and enjoy.

Note: The Grand Counsel is a non-cannon group of leaders among the beings of the Bionicle universe, similar to the United Nations. It consists of the Turaga Dume, Toa Helryx, Makuta Miserix, the Skakdi Nektann, Roodaka, The Shadowed One, the Glatorian and an Agori representative. It is based off of the council in the Bionicle short story entitled "The Kingdom."

WARNING: This story exposes some future developments to my on going series entitled "Fire vs Ice." If you are unfamiliar with this storyline and/or do not care about spoilers, please feel free to read on. If you want to remain in the dark, please follow the link to the first story in the series. Thank you, and please enjoy!

The Light Seeker Report

Written by Toa Helryx  
>(Transcribed by IAMJerry262)<p>

Introduction

It has been almost a year since "Project Light Seeker" was disbanded and we have still yet to scratch the surface of its methods, affiliates, missions or accomplishments. What we do know is that in an effort to protect the Matoran of the universe from future threats, an unknown Toa simply calling himself "The Guardian" put the lives of several Matoran, Order of Mata Nui members and even his fellow Toa in danger. In this report, I will attempt to show the Great Counsel an insight to the organization's structure, operations, experiments and its repercussions and offer a solution to preventing similar projects from happening in the future.

I must be clear about one thing before I continue any further. This report is merely a written record on the activities of Project Light Seeker. The Order of Mata Nui, the Matoran population and Agori people do not endorse the actions of Project Light Seeker in any way, shape or form, nor are we going to attempt to further the research of the organization, even if some of its findings proved useful and possibly beneficial to our peoples. So as a final declaration to all readers of this document, know this. The actions of Project Light Seeker were unethical, unlawful and illegal in every aspect of our people. Anyone involved in this project will be caught and punished, even upon punishment of death if necessary.

Toa Helryx,

Leader of the Order of Mata Nui

History

The exact date of Project Light Seeker's (PLS) conception is still unknown, but we do know that a mysterious new threat was the reason behind the Toa calling himself "The Guardian" taking the drastic actions of PLS. After intensive interrogation and counseling, the Matoran who worked under The Guardian finally revealed he had a vision one night of a "dark mass of enormous proportions" that spoke to him, claiming that it would make even the mightiest of armies tremble before him. The visions/dreams continued over the portion of several weeks, with each one growing in detail and terror, according to Matoran's accounts. In the first vision, The Guardian claimed the mass spoke to him telepathically, telling him that "they" (inferring there was more than one new being that was going to be attacking) were going to not only take Mata Nui's place as guardian of the universe, but eliminate all of being's he watched over. In the next vision, the mass identified itself as a race of beings that would arrive "from a place much like Spherus Magna" to take the planet for their own. In the next vision, the beings informed The Guardian of a weapon they possessed, capable of rending any warrior useless in battle. The Matoran continued on with his tale, describing how no amount of force from the Toa, Order of Mata Nui, Dark Hunters, Glatorian and Skakdi would be able to stop "them," and the only hope for the population of Spherus Magna was a quick, painless death when "they" arrived. The Matoran went on to explain how the mass would appear in his dreams more and more frequently, as if it was growing in power, or closer in distance. It finally got to the point, where The Guardian was being visited by the mass on a nightly basis, and even allowed The Guardian to ask question or beg for mercy. The mass was cryptic in its answers, but The Guardian was able to discover one thing about it: the mass seemed to know nothing about the Matoran or Makuta species. It was around a year and a half ago that The Guardian claimed the mass "stopped visiting him" but the visions would "replay in his head for days on end." We excluded this event to be the result of Annona (a massive, telepathic being capable of consuming a being's dreams and driving them mad) after confirming its defeat at the hands of a gold skinned being and an Agori named Sahmad some time before The Guardian began having these visions.

It was sometime after the visions stopped coming that The Guardian stumbled upon a Matoran aide to Artakha, and began to develop the concept for the PLS. He went on to recruit several different beings to help him in his mission. He first recruited the Toa Mahri, five Toa who were former Matoran inhabitants of the islands of Metru Nui and Mata Nui, where he lived for all of his known Matoran life. Next, he recruited several members of the Order of Mata Nui and the being known as Artakha to help him design and carry out his experiments, and several Matoran from the known universe to participate in his them. He chose Matoran who were either eager to please authority, were determined on earning respect among their peers or were bent on becoming Toa or some other kind of great hero. After recruiting them, The Guardian and the Order of Mata Nui members who were helping him, helped Artakha to create a new Kanohi Olmak, which he used to travel back in time and into alternate dimensions to recruit more Matoran. These Matoran were important as they are or were Toa at some point in our universe's history and timeline, so he knew their personalities and what kind of warriors they would be if his experiments succeeded.

Each of the Matoran was given a code name, unique to that Matoran's element. The Matoran from this universe included the Kapura (Agent Heat), Macku (Agent Stream), Tamaru (Agent Breeze), Ahkmou (Agent Rock), Tenhutii (Agent Soil), Kopeke (Agent Snow), Vultraz (Agent Blaze), Mazeka (Agent Frost) and Tanma (Agent Sun.)* The Matoran taken from other dimensions included Tuyet (Agent Condensation/CD), Chiara (Agent Static), Krakua (Agent Noise), Zaria (Agent Metal), Varian (Agent Thought) and Orde (Agent Muse.) There were also several more, still unaccounted for Matoran from the elements of Magnetism, Plasma, Gravity and Plant Life in the known universe, and possibly other Matoran from the elements already listed.  
>*For detailed information on Gavla (Agent Rain) and the nature as a member of the Light Seekers, see the section entitled "Repercussions."<p>

After gathering the Matoran, PLS started its experiments, which involved and incorporated various aspects of exposing the Matoran to a variety of substances and extensive combat training. The Matoran were also subjected to medical and scientific testing and examination. Part of this training involved simulations matches of combat, and simulated scenarios, in which the Matoran would have an objective they would need to attain, in order to test their field skills and battle tactics.

It was in the middle of these tests that we learned about PLS's motives, and begin an inquiry. We learned they had some how used supplies, originally granted by the Order of Mata Nui, in ways they were not intended to be used (to be detailed in the topic "Experiments.") We seized what supplies we could immediately, and shut down the project until further notice, which eventually became an official termination. In the aftermath, some of the Matoran members returned to the general population, while other went rouge and proceeded to act as mercenaries and arms for hire. We track down the few members we could, and the rest are currently being hunted by our members.

Experiments

The following is a report from Order member Axxon, who assisted in the raid and search of PLS's headquarters and main testing site.

"When we arrived, the building appeared intact, but there was no sign of life or movement. The facility was a maze of computer terminals, hard drives and processing units, which were all wiped cleaned and had lost all function. When our technicians went to examine them, they were unable to even get the devices to operate, much less extract any information from them. It seemed as if an unseen and otherwise untouchable force had whipped out the facility's entire electrical infrastructure. We proceeded to search the building for anything that would give us some insight into PLS experiments. We came across two Matoran in the main building, seeming to be squaring off for a fight to the death. We separated and detained them, and continued our search of the facility. In the end, all we could find was garage, which stored several different kinds of vehicles. The door to garage was still open and two sets of tracks leading away from it, which indicated two mid-sized ground transports of some kind had been stolen, or used to escape the facility. We declared the facility cleared, and returned to the Order's headquarters with our captives."

I arrived to inspect the facility later that day, because I had to see it for myself. It was true. The facility's entire computer system had been fried, and rendered completely useless. It seemed like we had struck a dead end, until we interviewed our prisoners. Well, prisoner. The Ta-Matoran we had apprehended could not speak. He had been injured in some way and had lost his ability to speak. Instead, we got most of our information about the facility, its occupants and experiments from our other captive: a former Light Seeker himself.

His codename was Frost, that is all he would give us at first, but after an extensive interview, we learned he was actually one of our own. We had called him Mazeka. He called us words I care not to repeat. Now, he just went by Frost. He would not respond to any other name, so for the sake of ease, we complied with that one request. Mazeka/Frost explained the process of the training very precisely, even down to the most mundane of training exercises and events. Our records tracked every word, which can be read in full detail in our report "The Frost Interview" (see attached document.)

To highlight and condense Frost's testimony, The Guardian had figured out with one hundred percent certainty that the unseen enemy from his visions knew nothing of the Makuta and Matoran, and he had decided to use both of them against the new enemy. Several of our members had approached us and asked for the small samples of each Makuta virus we carried on behalf of the Guardian (who was still unknown to us at that time.) We granted them access to all one hundred of them, thinking it was merely for recreational purposes, or that our scientists were trying to devise some new battle tactic in case Miserix decided to turn on us. We were not even close. According to Frost, and later confirmed by our researchers, The Guardian had found a way for the Makuta Viruses to co-inhabit inside of Matoran bodies without possessing them. He had furthered that by isolating certain portions of the viruses so that they only had access to certain powers of each of the Makuta. There were many failures, leaving only around seventy-five of the entire virus population useable. When we asked Frost how he isolated them, he had shuddered and turned away. He refused to answer for some time, but our interrogators pressed him to explain the process. He finally said "He tortured them…with his light powers." Frost refused to explain it any further in our initial interview, but in his testimony, our member Trinuma was able to coax the information out of Frost, who explained the process in horrifying detail.  
><em>The following is an excerpt from "The Frost Interview."<em>

Frost: He would release the virus into a room, with around fifty empty bodies it could retreat to. He would then start the torture, using red light to attack and torture the virus first. It would usually get mad right away, and cast of an emotion like empathy, so it could not care about its attacker. Next was usually deceit, as the Makuta would soon realize it could not lie to itself about how dire the situation was. As it lost more traits, it became more Rahi-like, and crazier by the second. At about the halfway point, he (The Guardian) could usually have the Makuta's spirit almost completely broken, so it practically disintegrated into the empty bodies. He would know he had reached the halfway point because it would cast off it logic, so it could not understand what was happening to it (logic exited as a green burst, and would always flee to the farthest compartment.) Later would come its memories, so it could not recognize how much more painful the next round of torture was. Creativity was one of the last traits a Makuta would separate itself from, so it could finally stop thinking about how to get out of the situation. Finally, it would cast of its rage, its anger, because that would be all that was left. What was left, the project members would call the "umbra."

Trinuma: The darkest part of shadow.

Frost: That's right.

Axxon: Why would they call it that?

Frost: Because that would usually be all that was left; Shadow energy. Raw, unbridled, and deadly shadow energy. It contained only the smallest portion of a Makuta's consciousness, making it relatively useless to the project's goals, so they were simply kept in storage for the Guardian's amusement, I guess. The viruses were crazy about them. They were always talking about "The Umbra."

Axxon: Did they plan on freeing all of the umbra collected by Project Light Seeker?

Frost: No, not like that. They would talk about it as if there was an original. They talked about it as if all of the Makuta had stemmed from the same umbra or something, and like it was hidden somewhere.

Axxon: Did you ever locate this "Umbra"?

Frost: Yes.

Axxon: Where is it now?

Frost: I don't know.

Axxon's Kanohi Rode confirmed that Frost had been telling the truth about his knowledge of the location of "The Umbra." He did not know where the Umbra had taken off to, or what its exact nature was at the present moment. He explained that the Umbra was "the darkest part of shadow, but also the brightest source of light." When Trinuma pressed him for more information using his Mask of Charisma, Frost said he could not explain it any better than that, and Axxon confirmed his statement by using the power of his Kanohi Rode.

Frost later went on to explain that certain members of PLS were then exposed to Makuta viruses, which attached themselves to the Matoran's body and mind, granting them access to their unique Makuta's trait, a Makuta power and sometimes the ability to use Kanohi and even tap into their elemental power (though this was an extremely rare ability, according to Frost.) Frost had been given the Makuta Krika virus, which gave him the ability to access the Makuta power of Mind Reading. He explained how some Makuta were shared by members, some received two, and others received none to compare the difference between the two.

Frost also told us about how some of the experiments were successes, but other were failure. Some of the Matoran were driven made by the experience of two minds, while other actually died from the experiments. Most of the Matoran simply had their Makuta removed, but some the Makuta's powers became infused to their armor or Kanohi, or even bodies. The Matoran soon learned that the powers could be passed from one Matoran to another, allowing the Matoran Vultraz and Varian to steal the viruses and powers from their fellow Matoran upon their deaths. The current whereabouts for most of the Matoran with the Makuta powers has been determined or the powers have simply been lost due to the destruction of the main PLS facility.

Repercussions

Agent Frost informed us about a Matoran named Takua that was among those who helped him track down Vultraz and the remaining Makuta powers before we found him. We were very careful not to tell him Takua was no longer a Matoran in this universe, but was actually a Toa of Light named Takanuva. He also told us about a Matoran named Gavla who participated in the Light Seekers program, but described her as a Ga-Matoran under the code named "Agent Rain." It took some time, but we eventually figured out that this "alternate Takua" (A-Takua) had been brought though to this dimension, and was in a close relationship with the Gavla from his own dimension. We also determined that A-Takua had some kind of connection to all of the Makuta, but that exact connection is still unknown. We later learned that the Alternate Gavla was killed at some point, but somehow brought back by A-Takua, but exactly how is still under investigation. All in all, the exact repercussions of The Guardian's actions are still be determined, and we will not likely discover the full scope of his destructive experiment until he is apprehended.

Conclusion

After much research, many interviews and investigations, there is still a heavy cloud of mystery over the activities and experiments of the organization known as Project Light Seeker. The Order of Mata Nui takes full responsibility for our involvement, but not for the organization's direct actions. Had we known the true intentions of PLS, we would have no supplied the members or materials for their experiments. Please know that anyone believed, and convicted, of involvement with PLS caught by the Order of Mata Nui will be tried by our laws first, and then handed over to the Grand Counsel. In conclusion, PLS was a terrible, unethical and immoral act against the Matoran people and the Makuta species, and anyone caught and convicted of furthering or continuing its work will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. No exceptions will be made.


End file.
